By Gérard Bon and John Irish
PARIS (Reuters) – Police commandos arrested 19 suspected Islamic militants in raids on Friday in several French cities including Toulouse, where seven people were killed by an al Qaeda-inspired gunman this month.
President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose firm handling of the shooting spree has boosted his chances of re-election, said more raids would follow to get rid of “people who have no business in the country”.
Interior Minister Claude Gueant said those arrested had paramilitary-type training although he did not say if they were planning an actual attack.
“These are people who…claimed they were acting for an extremely violent, jihadist and combat ideology,” Gueant told reporters after meeting Muslim associations in Paris.
Television channels showed images of the early morning raids, with agents from the RAID police commando unit and anti-terrorist specialists bashing down doors, smashing windows, and taking suspects away handcuffed and with their faces covered.
Five rifles, three Kalashnikovs, four handguns and a bullet-proof vest were seized in the operation, Gueant said.
A police source said about 20 people had been arrested in Toulouse in the southwest, Nantes in western France and also in the Paris region and the southeast. Sarkozy put the number of arrests at 19.
The operation was not directly related to Mohamed Merah’s killing spree in Toulouse, the police source said, although Sarkozy ordered a crackdown on radical Islamists following that.
“These are people who … claimed they were acting for an extremely violent, jihadist and combat ideology,” Gueant told reporters after meeting Muslim associations in Paris.
“They had a paramilitary type of training,” he said without confirming if those arrested were preparing attacks.
The swoops, carried out by the RAID police commando unit and anti-terrorist specialists, were not directly related to Merah’s killing spree, according to the police source.
KNIGHTS OF PRIDE
Sarkozy, who ordered a crackdown on radical Islamists after the Toulouse killings, barred six Islamic preachers from entering the country on Thursday who wanted to attend a Muslim conference in Paris.
Gueant dismissed talk that the raids had been carried out in response to suggestions that the intelligence services had failed to monitor and track down Merah quickly enough.
The police source said the raids were not directly related to the investigation into the case of Merah, a Frenchman of Algerian origin, whose brother is under official inquiry and is in custody on suspicion of complicity.
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The same police source said several of the people arrested were believed to be close to radical Islamist group called Forsane Alizza (Knights of Pride) that was recently outlawed. Gueant said the group’s leader, Mohammed Achamlane, had also been arrested in Nantes.
Founded in 2010, Forsane Alizza came to prominence after calling that year for the boycott of Macdonald’s in the central city of Limoges accusing the U.S. fast food chain of serving Israel.
“It’s a big show, but obviously spreading ideas that can cause problems,” he said.
France’s 5 million strong Muslim minority is the largest in Europe but only a portion – about 10 percent, or the same proportion as among Catholics – are practising, according to Muslim associations.
(Writing by Brian Love and John Irish; Editing by Angus Macswan)